Blue acara injured!

[Tightdog1]

Ok i recently had a pacu destroy my heater in my tank. and sisnce im not normally home, i didnt notice it my brother did. he took out all the broken glass and the heater. but i had a blue acara cut himself on the broken glass. he cut himself really bad. my brother found him layin on the gravel in my 55g on his side not moving, so he immediately put him into this 10g eclipse i got from a friend for free, ive had it cycling for about 2 months now. ok well he is in there and he has this big *** gash on the side of his face right behind his gills. it is about the same size as his gill openeing and its about 1/4 in behind the gill opening. now he cant use the gill opening and breathes from the cut. he cant swim straight anymore either and the messed up gill is always gaping open and i can see the actual gills.

ive been treating him with the recommended dose of melafix, but the cut hasnt gotten any smaller, but his frayed fins have gotten better so i know its doin some good. i was wondering if you guys had any suggestions? ive tried to take pics but by the time i get a good shot he turns and i miss the opening, i will keep on trying to get pics to u guys tho.

[pierre_john]

That is really to bad, I would continue with the treatment of Melafix, this stuff works great. Every other day I would do 10% water change to keep infection out. You could also use a little bit of aquarium salt. Please ensure that you disolve with some of the tank water before you add it to the tank. Keep the lights out and feed as much as the fish needs, you might want to get him some really good food that will attract him/her to it.

Keep it up though, I have had fish that have healed up great, and my blue acara's gill was totally closed up for about two weeks but he healed up good. If you see any further deterioration you may consider euthanization, if it is suffering.

What is the coloration of your fish, mine was very dark, one from the stress and secondly I don't think that it was getting enough oxygen. Try and put a bubbler in the tank too.

Good Luck

[Tightdog1]

as i said b4 he is in a 10g eclipse tank and he seems to be fine except his gill is messed up, i eman he can still breathe fine, ifd not better cause the cut is bigger than the old gill opening so there is more room for water/oxygen to get in, but maybe i'll put an air stone in there too, cant hurt. yea the lights are always off except whe i feed him once a day, just some tetracichlid flakes.